Cypriot Small bronze Cypriot (or Phoenician) bowl with handles: Cypro-Geometric III 900-800 BC

A copper-alloy hemispherical bowl with slightly flattened base; the two arched handles cast and each fixed with 5 rivets to the bowl, topped by floral knops.

Although the flower decorations on the handles are not the typical lotus buds seen on a number of Cypriot bowls of this period this is a variant on a Cypriot type. The single, closest typological parallel was found in a single 9th century BC specimen from Tell Halaf, Syria (destroyed during second world war)), and it was not possible to determine if this was made in Cyprus and exported or was a local adaptation of the type. Kition (modern Larnaca) was then a Phoenician colony subject to Tyre.

Despite the dominance of iron for weapons and tools, copper continued to be produced and bronze continued to be the preferred material for luxuries such as this. Complete in good condition. 321 grams